Why do some plants have flowers?
Quick answer from Eartha
Flowers are a plant's way of making seeds for baby plants! Bright colours and yummy smells invite bees and other visitors to stop by. While visiting, these helpers move a dust called pollen between flowers. That pollen helps the flower make seeds, which can grow into brand new plants.
The longer story
A flower isn't just pretty to look at, it has an important job. Flowers help a plant make seeds so it can grow the next generation of plants.
Inside flowers is a fine, powdery dust called pollen. For a flower to make seeds, pollen usually needs to travel from one flower to another, in a process called pollination.
Bright petals, sweet smells and sugary nectar are all clever invitations for bees, butterflies, birds and even bats to visit. As these visitors move around collecting food, pollen sticks to them and rubs off on the next flower they visit.
Once pollination happens, the flower can start forming seeds, and sometimes fruit around those seeds too. Around 90 percent of flowering plants worldwide rely on animals like insects to help with this pollen journey.
Try this at home: flower detective
- Look closely at a flower in a garden or park, without picking it.
- See if you can spot any pollen, nectar or a visiting insect.
- Draw the flower and label the parts you noticed.
Words to know
- Pollen
- A fine, powdery dust flowers use to make seeds.
- Pollination
- When pollen moves from one flower to another.
- Nectar
- A sweet liquid flowers make to attract visitors.
For grown-ups: what is my child learning here?
Age band: 8-11
Curriculum link: Australian Curriculum v9 Science, AC9S4U01
The concept: Flowering plants have structures and processes, including pollination, that support reproduction.
More classroom ideas are on our teachers page, and safety notes for families are on for parents.
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